A Guide to Skills-Based Interview Questions

Different types of interview questions require different preparation. Some are more general, asking about your motivation, strengths and weaknesses. Others are designed to find out about your career goals. But you’re also likely to be asked skills-based interview questions. Here we discuss what these are and how to prepare for them, and take you through some common examples.

What are skills-based interview questions?

As the name suggests, skills-based questions focus on your skills rather than education, qualifications and experience. They help employers decide how well you’d fit the role and its responsibilities.

They’re increasingly common, with recruiters’ focus often shifting away from ‘traditional’ qualifications or academic background that many employers once prioritised.

Screening questions

Some employers will ask you to complete screening questions before interview. These might be part of the application form—some charities use them instead of or in addition to a personal statement or cover letter. Or you might be asked them in a pre-interview phone call.

They’re designed to ensure that you and the charity you’re applying to are a good match for each other. This determines whether you progress to the next stage of the application process. Like interview questions, screening questions are often skills-based, so the same principles apply.

What skills are charities looking for?

The skills you’ll need to demonstrate will depend on the role. But some skills are particularly in demand in the charity sector, and they’re transferable.

They include:

• communication
• creativity
• data analysis
• digital skills
• flexibility
• interpersonal skills
• leadership
• problem solving
• organisation
• teamwork.

Preparing for skills-based interview questions

Research key skills for the type of role you’re applying for. Our career guides are a handy place to start. For each skill, come up with a relevant example or two of how you’ve demonstrated this skill in the past. At interview, it’s useful to have a bank of examples that you can draw on.

Don’t over-rehearse your answers, though—make sure they’re adaptable for a range of questions. Recruiters will be more interested in how you can apply your skills to a given problem than in how well you’ve memorised an answer.

The STAR method

STAR is a way of structuring your answers to skills-based interview questions. It stands for:

S — Situation: Describe a problem that you needed to solve.

T — Task: Detail the task at hand to resolve the situation.

A — Action: Explain what you brought to the task and the actions you took.

R — Results: Give the positive results of your actions.

Read our in-depth guide to using the STAR method.

Examples of skills-based interview questions and how to approach them

How do you juggle competing deadlines?

This is about your organisation skills, as well as your ability to cope under pressure. Give an example of a busy period or a complex project you’ve worked on and the strategies you used to achieve your goals. Don’t forget to mention any digital planning tools you’ve used (for example Outlook, Teams, Slack). This will help you show you’re familiar with relevant software.

How do you make decisions?

How you approach this question can depend on your personality and working style. But it’s also a chance to show you understand the requirements of the specific role. If it involves making business-critical decisions, it’s important to show you’re confident drawing on evidence and liaising with stakeholders. So give examples of your data analysis and communication skills.

Give an example of how you overcame a challenge in the workplace.

This question evaluates your problem-solving abilities and your resilience. Recruiters will want to see that you keep a cool head when challenged. So whichever example you use, remember not to sound resentful about the problem you’re describing. Instead, put the emphasis on the positive steps you took to resolve it and the long-term benefits of that result.

Tell me about a time when you guided people towards a compromise.

This is a chance to showcase your conflict resolution, communication and interpersonal skills. For example, perhaps you’ve been in a team meeting where there were competing views over how something should be done. If so, think about how you identified common ground and how you persuaded people to accept your proposal.

How have you managed a team member who is underperforming?

This is a classic skills-based interview question for line managers. Just remember the STAR method. Recruiters will want to know how you identified the person’s underperformance and its impact on the team. Then talk about the role you played in supporting them to address it, and how your actions affected the outcome.

Ready to put these tips into practice? Take a look at the latest roles available on CharityJob today.